Alaskan Airways - Midnight Sun Flights, 1931

The ad seen below, for Alaskan Airways' Midnight Sun Flights appeared in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner daily from June 15 until July 6, 1931. The company had started Midnight Sun Flights, which took passengers up to 8,000 feet, in 1930.

Alaskan Airways was formed in 1929 when Carl Ben Eielson convinced officials of the Aviation Corporation of America to buy several small aircraft operators in Alaska, including Anchorage Air Transport. Eielson was named vice president and general manager of the new company, and they soon got a contract to fly 15 stranded passengers and 6 tons of furs (worth $1 million) from the trading ship Nanuck, which was stranded in the ice off Siberia. On November 9, 1929, Eielson and his mechanic, Earl Borland, were killed when their Hamilton Metalplane crashed on a small island off the Siberian coast in a blizzard on their second flight to the ship.

In 1932, Alaskan Airways didn't run display ads for the Midnight Sun Flights, only the text notice seen below. That appears to have been their final year offering the flights. Midnight Sun Flights weren't seen in the Fairbanks newspapers again til 1939, when Lavery Airways began to run display ads offering 30-minute flights for $5, and Wien Alaska Airlines and Pollack Flying Service were also running flights to see the midnight sun.